Murmaran Pantheon
An ancient pantheon of ancient gods, the Murmaran Pantheon is one whose mythology and worship has barely changed in its long history. History Growing up around the land of Murmara, the pantheon and religion has remained largely the same for thousands upon thousands of years, dating back even to the time of the Age of Gods and Men. It was the ancient empire of Murmara that first made the gods an important part of the state, linking the rulership of its kings to the gods and establishing a divine mandate for itself during the dawn of the Age of Heroes. This state of affair existed for thousands of years under different dynasties and even empires, all claiming to hold the mandate of the gods. However, when ancient Murmara went to war with Corellonia at the end of the Age of Heroes, ruin befell both empires and the link between the Murmaran pantheon and state was severed. With the dawn of the Age of Emperors, the worship of the Murmaran gods continued in the Murmaran successor states. During this time, the worship of the gods was tied closely to their idols, and the presence of a sacred idol directly blessed and protected the town in which it was present, and no clearer symbol existed of a town's loss of divine favour than the destruction or theft of an idol. Eventually, expansions by the Antiochids and the Rythians took their toll on the successor states, and Murmaran religion died out in many areas, replaced by the worship of the Olympian Pantheon. There was little violence or forced conversion involved - conquered towns felt abandoned by their gods and so abandoned them, instead worshipping the gods of their conquerors, who were clearly divinely-mandated in their successful conquests. Others, however, who were assimilated slowly through trade and diplomacy, kept their gods, but associated them with those of the Olympian Pantheon, so Adad and Anu came to be seen as aspects of Zeus, Shamash was seen as an aspect of Apollo and so on. The transfer of religions was not one-way, and so as well as the Murmarans coming to view some of their gods as aspects of Olympians, the peoples of the Rythian Empire adopted many Murmaran gods as their own - most prominently Bahamut, Kord, Tiamat, and Wee Jas. Murmaran Religion survived in its purest form in the city-state of Persepolis, where the Akkavid Dynasty remained strong and independent, and kept alive the old ways of Murmara, and in the Scarlet Brotherhood, the organisation of assassins and spies that sought to re-establish old Murmara and fulfil its destiny of world conquest. Eventually, Antiochids and Rythians alike retreated, and as the Age of Emperors gave way to the Age of Kings, the Akkavids were overthrown in Persepolis, and the Hasarids came to power, beginning the conquest of a new empire governed by the gods of Murmara. Idols In Murmaran Religion in its purest, original form, the worship of sacred idols is an important part of religious life. The loss of an idol is catastrophic to civic morale, as it indicates a loss of favour and protection from the idol's god Although many speculate that these sacred idols are purely representative and have no real power, there have been many accounts that atest to an idol's magical properties, often by those who steal them, and then feel the wrath of the divine. List of Murmaran Deities *Abraxat *Adad *Anu *Bahamut *Kord *Marduk *Osprem *Pazuzu *Shamash *Tiamat *Wee Jas *Xerbo Category:Pantheon Category:Murmaran Pantheon Category:Deity